When the Akufo-Addo government forwarded the Ntiamoah-Baidu Committee’s recommendation for First and Second Ladies to be placed on salary, the Presidency had already received money to cater for the quarterly allowances of the First and Second Ladies.
The money had been a part of a package that the 2021 budget had allocated to the Presidency and was part of the almost Ghc900million that the Office of State Machinery received.
The 2021 Budget statement had allocated a whopping GH¢823,880,668.00 to the office of State Machinery aka, the Executive. This amount was inclusive of the quarterly allowances the State allocates the Presidency, including the offices of the First and Second Ladies, as well as their allowances.
And so even as the Ntiamoah-Baidu Committee’s recommendation that First and Second Ladies be paid the same salaries as Cabinet Ministers was forwarded to Parliament, the 2021 Budget had already made provision for their allowances in the Budgetary allocation to the Presidency.
As Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has already confirmed that the First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo has indeed been put on a salary after the Committee’s recommendations were approved, the question has arisen as to what the Presidency has done with the allowances that were provided for in its allocation from the 2021 Budget.
Incidentally, the 2021 allocation to the Presidency was exceptionally huge – a whopping GH¢823,880,668.00.
This is a 504.85% increase over the GH¢136,212,551.00 that was allocated in the previous year, 2020.
Even more interesting, while the budgetary allocation to the Presidency had increased by 504.85% the staff strength at the Presidency had decreased by5.84% from 1696 in 2020 to 1597 in 2021.